Public restrooms are maintained by many public and private organizations for the convenience of persons away from home. Sanitary conditions in such restrooms are often poor. Examples include unhygienic surfaces such as are found on visibly dirty wash basins, faucet handles, and toilet seats. Further, even where the restroom appears to be well maintained, users may perceive that conditions are unsanitary because the facilities are used by strangers, or because of the potential for non-visible contamination of the facilities.
Such public restrooms may or may not provide personal care supplies such as soap or moistened sanitary wipes, toilet paper, and toilet seat covers. Additionally, even is such personal items are present, their condition may be unhygienic. For example, a roll of toilet paper may be soiled, may be of poor quality, or may have a leading end touching the floor. Therefore, there is a need for a package of personal care items that can be easily carried on trips away from home for use in public restrooms.
Disposable toilet seat covers are known in the art. Disposable toilet seat cover dispensers are sometimes found in public restrooms, but the dispenser may be empty, or the toilet seat cover soiled. Examples of disposable toilet seat covers are disclosed in the following references: U.S. Pat. No. 2,387,085 issued Oct. 16, 1945 to Clark; U.S. Pat. No. 4,627,117 issued Dec. 9, 1986 to Morishita; U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,242 issued Oct. 24, 1989 to Albrecht et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,887,321 issued Dec. 19, 1989 to MacLean; and French Patent Application 2,560,763 published Sep. 13, 1985 by Regenwetter. Packages for dispensing dry or premoistened sheets of tissue are also known in the art. Premoistened tissue can be used to clean the toilet seat prior to use, or to clean the hands after using the restroom facilities. Examples of such packages of dry or premoistened tissue are disclosed in the following references: U.S. Pat. No. 1,628,981 issued May 17, 1927 to Horwitt; U.S. Pat. No. 2,118,473 issued May 24, 1938 to Morris; U.S. Pat. No. 2,619,226 issued Nov. 25, 1952 to Adams; U.S. Pat. No. 2,823,089 issued Feb. 11, 1958 to Franco; U.S. Pat. No. 3,306,492 issued Feb. 28, 1967 to Kugler; U.S. Pat. No. 3,499,575 issued Mar. 10, 1970 to Rockefeller; U.S. Pat. No. 3,514,014 issued May 26, 1970 to Skowronski; U.S. Pat. No. 4,002,264 issued Jan. 11, 1977 to Marchesani: U.S. Pat. No. 4,131,195 issued Dec. 26, 1978 to Worrell; U.S. Pat. No. 4,185,754 issued Jan. 29, 1980 to Julius; U.S. Pat. No. 4,192,420 issued Mar. 11, 1980 to Worrell, Sr. et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,855 issue Nov. 5, 1985 to Harrison; U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,944 issued May 3, 1988 to Jackson et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,064 issued Sep. 5, 1989 to Dailey; U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,613 issued Dec. 25, 1990 to McLaughlin et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,076,465 issued Dec. 31, 1991 to Lawson; Canadian Patent 893001 issued Feb. 15, 1972 to Contini; and South African Patent Application 810146 published Dec. 17, 1981, in the name of Nampak Products Limited.
Such packages of tissue sheets typically only contain one or more pieces of a single component, such as a number of pieces of moistened tissue, or a length of moistened tissue. Such an arrangement is disadvantageous because the user must carry a package for each component. For example, the user must carry one package for moistened tissue and one package for dry tissue.
Because of the poor conditions found in many public restrooms, users typically wish to minimize the time spent in the public restroom, and accordingly wish to eliminate the wasted time and inconvenience of handling multiple packages. Worse yet, the user may forget one of the single component packages. In addition, multiple packages increase the cost to the user. Multiple packages also increase the amount of material that must be disposed of in landfills.
Different personal care components contained in one package are also known in the art. Examples of such packages are disclosed in the following references: U S. Pat. No. 4,332,319 issued Jun. 1, 1982 to Hurwood; U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,874 issued Mar. 24, 1987 to Nakamura; U.S. Pat. No. 4,739,879 issued Apr. 26, 1988 to Nakamura; U.S. Pat. No. 4,790,436 issued Dec. 13, 1988 to Nakamura; U.S. Pat. No. 4,881,278 issued Nov. 21, 1989 to Farah; South African Patent Application 9007835 published Jul. 31, 1991 by Coetzee; and U.K. Patent Publication 2,238,286A published May 29, 1991 by Levin.
Such packages have different components in separate sealed compartments, or have different components that dispense as a group from an opening. Those packages having different components in separate sealed compartments are not convenient. As mentioned above, users typically wish to minimize the time spent in the public restroom, and accordingly do not want to open a sealed compartment for each personal care item.
Furthermore, packages having different components that come out of the package together are rot convenient because components that come out of the package at the same time cannot be used at the same time. Separate components may be withdrawn from the package in an order different than the order of intended use, requiring the user to juggle multiple components while using the restroom facilities.
Further, because of the poor lighting conditions often found in public restrooms, it may be difficult to visually distinguish the different components in the package. Therefore, it may be necessary to withdraw all of the components from the package in order to locate one desired component. While the user is attempting to withdraw the desired component, other components can be misplaced, fall out of the package onto the floor, or otherwise become contaminated during handling. Handling of multiple components simultaneously is further complicated when the user is holding other items, such as a purse, or is supervising small children. In addition, components which come out of a package at the same time typically require substantial unfolding or handling prior to being ready for use.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a personal care convenience kit which dispenses different personal hygiene components in a sequential, one at a time fashion through a single dispensing opening. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a convenience kit having different personal hygiene components ordered with respect to a single dispensing opening, so that the different components can be withdrawn one at a time in the order in which they are to be used. Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a convenience kit for dispensing different personal hygiene components so that a plurality of the different personal hygiene components are substantially ready to use upon dispensing. Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a convenience kit for different personal hygiene components such that a plurality of the different components at least partially unfold as they are dispensed. Still another object of the present invention is to provide a convenience kit which has an auxiliary dispensing opening for dispensing at least one of the different personal hygiene components out of sequence.